The station began broadcast operations on September 26, 1972, with 3,000 watts of
effective radiated power on a frequency of 104.9
MHz from an antenna in
height above average terrain. That station has since relaunched separate original programming. On June 10, 2019, the station changed its call sign to WBWR. On June 14, 2019, Mike Parchman's Consolidated Media LLC consummated the purchase of the station from Cumberland Radio Partners for $1. WBWR changed its call sign back to WVWF on June 18, 2019, to WVWB on January 9, 2020, and to WOWQ on July 26, 2021. On December 22, 2021, WOWQ changed its format from classic country to adult hits, branded as "105.1 The Train". The call sign changed again to WLFN on June 3, 2022, after the station effectively reverted the change at that time and flipped to country as "The Wolf", and to WJZM on January 23, 2024. On January 21, 2025, almost exactly a year after the last callsign change, the station dropped the country format (which would move to an online webstream on the former website, shifting to a
classic country focus) and began
stunting with various loops of songs (specifically, first "
Take This Job and Shove It" by
Johnny Paycheck, then "
May The Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" by
Little Jimmy Dickens, then "
The Door" by
Teddy Swims, then "
Jungle Love" by
The Time); at 5:30 PM on the 24th, the stunt shifted to a jockless
contemporary hit radio format, with the first song under the temp format being "
Good Luck, Babe!" by
Chappell Roan. On the 24th, during the stunting period, the station announced it would flip to
adult contemporary, branded simply as "105.1 WJZM".
The Original WJZM WJZM began in the early 1940s, when radio included everything from serialized dramas and weekly sermons to news and live sports. The premiere broadcast on Sunday, Oct. 14, 1941, began at 9 a.m. with a Sunday School lesson from First Baptist Church by Pastor Richard N. Owen, then a sermon by the Rev. W.L. McColgan of First Presbyterian Church, according to Leaf-Chronicle archives. Then followed addresses by Montgomery County Judge John T. Cunningham; Charles V. Runyon, representing Mayor William Kleeman; and H.D. Pettus and C.W. Bailey, representing the Clarksville Chamber of Commerce. From there, the station offered a wide variety of daily programming, starting at 6 a.m. and signing off at 11 p.m., according to 1941 listings. Local programs included shows such as "Clarksville Calling" and "Sports Spotlight", supplemented by syndicated shows from the Mutual Broadcasting System such as "White House Conference", "Ned Jordan, Secret Agent" and "Morton Gould’s Orchestra". The station, which was the first radio station,
WNZE licensed in Clarksville by the Federal Communications Commission, was granted a construction permit as WJZM on February 19, 1941. It was originally slated to broadcast at 1370
kilocycles, but the permit was modified to reassign the station to 1400 kilocycles as part of the
North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. WJZM signed on the air as Clarksville's pioneer station at 9 a.m. on the morning of October 14, 1941. The station offered a wide variety of programming in its early years, broadcasting a 17-hour schedule each day. For much of its first 60 years on the air, the station had an affiliation with the Mutual Broadcasting System. Local businessman Hank Bonecutter, who started his radio career at WJZM in 1973, purchased the station in 1994 under the business name Cumberland Radio Partners, Inc., which he sold to a group of other local businessmen in 2012. The call signs were changed in 2018. Cumberland Radio Partners, Inc became a part of Consolidated Media, LLC in 2019 and in 2021 the station was sold to Saga Communications. The WJZM call signs were on AM1400 from 1941 until 2018.
Notable Figures Actor
Frank Sutton began his broadcasting career at WJZM in 1942, as a Radio Announcer after moving back to Clarksville upon his graduation at East High School in Nashville. He was fired after the owner heard only static when tuning in one morning. Actor, Senator and Former Presidential Candidate
Fred Thompson frequented WJZM as an air guest. ==Former logos==